THE NEW SEASON THEATER; Caution: Ideas at Play

By BEN BRANTLEY

Published: September 10, 2006

TALL, red-blooded words -- the kind that wrestle big ideas to the ground -- are storming the stages of New York. Throughout their bracingly ambitious careers Tom Stoppard, August Wilson and David Hare have always insisted that conversation be something more exalted and exhausting than a mere after-dinner diversion.

Now Mr. Stoppard alone bids fair to make this the most dynamically verbal theater season since Shaw was a young thing of 70. (Shaw, incidentally, is fittingly represented by ''Heartbreak House,'' his rueful but energetic meditation on a social class paralyzed by world-annihilating war, in a revival from the Roundabout Theater Company.)

In ''The Coast of Utopia,'' the first installment of which, ''Voyage,'' begins performances on Oct. 17 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center, Mr. Stoppard has filled not one but three plays with the lives of the intellectual forebears of the Russian Revolution. Their discussions and arguments, which span three decades of the 19th century and consume roughly nine hours of stage time, concern mind-quaking subjects like the dialectic of history, the path of nations, the impact of literature and even the limitations of their favorite weapons, words themselves.

When the trilogy was first produced at the National Theater of London, this talk teemed with such passion that I left (to my surprise) more energized than depleted. The New York version is directed by Jack O'Brien, who propitiously proved his mastery of epic scope and towering language in the first-rate Lincoln Center Theater production of Shakespeare's ''Henry IV.''

With ''Utopia,'' whose three parts will open sequentially, Mr. O'Brien will be overseeing (gulp!) more than 40 actors in 70 roles. The ensemble includes Billy Crudup, Richard Easton, Jennifer Ehle, Josh Hamilton, Ethan Hawke, Amy Irving, Brian F. O'Byrne and Martha Plimpton, none of whom is likely to lapse into the automatic rhythms of ''yadda yadda yadda.''

Mr. Stoppard's contemporary, David Hare, is confining himself to only one play, of conventional length. That's ''The Vertical Hour,'' which begins previews at the Music Box Theater on Nov. 9. The British Mr. Hare, who dissected American realpolitik in his Washington docudrama ''Stuff Happens,'' continues to focus on these United States with his drama about an American academic (and former war reporter) who experiences culture shock while on vacation abroad.

If this all sounds a tad dry, you should know that the academic is played by the luscious (and brilliant) Julianne Moore.

The director is Sam Mendes, whose last collaboration with Mr. Hare, ''The Blue Room,'' was a concentration of commercial catnip that brought new life to the career of Nicole Kidman, whose brief appearance in the play buck-naked is still discussed by dirty old theatergoers.

A little less conversation has never been on the agenda for the characters of August Wilson. Before he died last year, Mr. Wilson completed the most ambitious cycle of American plays ever written. A chronicle of the African-American experience in the 20th century, the 10 plays are resonant with rich talk, both earthy and celestial, that considers nothing less than the history and destiny of a people.

In a season celebrating Mr. Wilson, the Signature is presenting three of these plays: ''Seven Guitars'' (which opened last month and runs through Sept. 23), ''Two Trains Running'' (Nov. 7 to Dec. 31) and ''King Hedley II'' (next February). Lend them your ears, for in Mr. Wilson's work, talk turns into unforgettable song.

Photo: Lance Reddick in August Wilson's ''Seven Guitars.'' (Photo by Rahav Segev for The New York Times)